1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus, and for example, to an information reproducing apparatus, in which, even when a display of the display information is inhibited or stopped, the play back state or the control information concerning the display information is effectively displayed. Further, the present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus for use in a car.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, as this kind of an apparatus, a car image display apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Registration No. 15 2654405 is known. This car image display apparatus detects a car travelling state. While the car is stopped, the image display is allowed. While the car is travelling, the image display is inhibited, and thus, safety is improved.
The conventional automobile equipment described above inhibits the display of moving images while the automobile is in motion, allowing the driver to concentrate on the safe operation of the automobile.
However, because the information source becomes diverse, or the information medium which displays the image information in various forms, appears on the market, there is a case in which inconvenience occurs for the driver or a fellow passenger when the image display is merely inhibited during car travelling.
For example, as the information source to provide the image information, a TV tuner, CD (Compact Disc) play back apparatus, DVD (Digital Video Disk or Digital Versatile Disk) play back apparatus, or navigation system which receives the radio wave from the GPS satellite and displays the present travelling position by the map, are combined with each other, and according to this, the high faculty car equipment is structured. For the CD or DVD as the information media, the CD or DVD having the logical data structure by which the interactive editing can be made, becomes many, therefore, the information medium to which the editing or working to display the image information by various display forms is previously made by the producer, is increased.
As described above, because the diversification of the information source and the information medium is promoted, on the display apparatus of the car equipment, the image information is displayed by the various display forms which are intended by the producer side who made the information medium.
As a result, for example, when the driver or the fellow passenger looks the image (movies, or the like) of DVD during the stoppage of travelling, and starts travelling, the DVD apparatus continues the play back operation, however, because the image display by the display apparatus is inhibited, the driver or the fellow passenger can not confirm the state of the play back of the DVD during the inhibited period.
In a more concrete case, when the image display is inhibited during the play back of the moving picture, because the audio play is continued, the driver or the like can confirm that the DVD reproducing apparatus is on play back operation, by listening the sound from the speaker. However, when the still image play back, which was previously edited by the DVD producer, is conducted during the inhibited period of the image display, the audio play back is also stopped.
Accordingly, while the still image is played back, the driver or the like can not easily obtain the judgement information whether the play back operation of the information source (DVD apparatus or the like) is stopped, whether the play back is normally continued, or whether, although the play back is normally continued, because the still image is on the play back, it looks apparently as if the play back operation were stopped, and there is a problem that the situation, in which it can not be easily judged how the driver copes with the inhibition of the image display, is assumed.
The same problem exists in, not limited to the information reproducing apparatus for the car use, but also other uses such as the home use information reproducing apparatus. For example, an AV equipment such as the DVD reproducing apparatus, can be connected to a personal computer, which is rapidly spread, and the diversification such as the case in which, while the movie played back by the DVD reproducing apparatus is displayed on a monitor of the personal computer, the document is simultaneously formed by the personal computer, is advanced.
In such a case, when the display on the image plane is changed to the display of the document formation on the way of watching the movie, the operation state of the DVD reproducing apparatus is not displayed on the monitor. Therefore, there is a problem in which the user is put in the same circumstance as in the car equipment, and can not confirm the operation state and the play back state of the DVD reproducing apparatus, and the inconvenient situation occurs.